New Crop Circle Conveys Ancient Symbolism
A fascinating pattern emerged from an English field that shows undeniable signs of intelligence and (perhaps) delivers a message for humanity.
A farm field in the United Kingdom revealed a wonder of beauty and wisdom. Located near Odstone Barn, Oxfordshire, the new crop circle incorporates elements of Celtic symbolism that suggest matters from theology, cosmology, and current human events. It was created, suddenly and mysteriously of course, over the night of July 15-16, 2026.
The Thread of Life
The new Odstone Barn formation presents two spheres, the larger centered around the smaller. The larger is approximately 70 meters in diameter, about 230-feet across; the smaller about half that size. The center of the smaller circle contains a living, three-dimensional representation of something that looks like a garden maze.
This centerpiece is an Infinity Knot, an ancient symbol of the eternal nature of the universe, loyalty and commitment. Interwoven as it courses around and through itself, and the interconnectedness of life in Celtic traditions and other ancient cultures around the world. Made from a single continuous thread, infinity knots have no beginning and no end, like a Möbius strip.
The new formation also displays a very specific type of infinity knot, the Celtic Shield. Ancient warriors carried this four-cornered design on their shields to gain protection from enemies in battle. Children, the elderly and the infirm, as well as houses, cottages and fortifications, also carried the knot to ward off bad fortune and illness. The new crop circle at Odstone Barn even looks like a shield.
Whatever the knot — infinity, shield or both — the crop circle was designed and created by an intelligent mind of some sort. The design reveals that it is not the result of an undiscovered natural process.
The images above are stills taken from the video below, created by Mr. Nick Bull of Stonehenge Dronescapes. Specializing in aerial, astronomical and landscape photography, the enterprise has beautifully chronicled an amazing and ancient phenomenon. Click here to learn more about Mr. Bull and his work at Facebook.
What the experts say
On the job since 1995, the good team at Crop Circle Connector (CCC) are helping study, analyze and chronicle this new formation. They ask about the new formation: “Is this just ‘great landscape art,’ or are they trying to send us a message?”
Theirs is an excellent question, especially when considering that the formation’s creator may not be a human or terrestrial intelligence. A virtual encyclopedia of the crop circle phenomenon, the CCC website provides excellent context as it compares previous crop circles that exhibit Celtic symbolism.
A useful, if shameless plug
The subject of crop circles has long been debated on both sides of the Atlantic. In addition to the skeptics and debunkers who claim all crop circles are human-made, a surprising number of ufologists have stated they believe there is no connection between the formations and UAP. With both camps, I respectfully disagree.
Readers of The Residium may remember Crop Circles on the Square, published last year. The article looked at the ties between UAP and the creation of images in the fields by manipulating the crops in farmers’ fields through an unknown mechanism or process. The process is one of communication.
In one amazing example, the crop circle exhibited advanced mathematical understanding without the need for numerals. The formation was an enormous graphical representation of pi, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, to the ninth decimal: 3.141592654.
The Residium article referenced above also includes a video ostensibly made by Mr. John Wheyleigh, a young traveler in 1996 that appears to have captured a crop circle as it was being made. In the video, a glowing orb appears to woosh and circle over a field as, underneath the thing, the crops seem to lay themselves down as an invisible force guides them.
Some believe crop circles are the work of the devil, as in the illustration below, first published in 1678. Nevertheless, Wheyleigh’s video looks like a UFO at work to me.
What would McLuhan think?
We may be able to draw on the work of Marshall McLuhan to help us see beyond the mythology of the Celtic peoples and other ancient traditions. In his seminal work, “The Medium Is the Message,” the Canadian visionary of communication posited that the form of communication itself — the “medium” — shapes and influences our society far more than the actual information any single message carries.
Dr. McLuhan reported he found that the technology or platform we use for transmitting an idea alters how we think, interact, and perceive the world. In his time, he saw how radio, and television were each a driver shaping and influencing the development of the modern world from the time of newspapers and the printing press.
Today, we consider Smart phones, the World Wide Web and Social Media. Our own eyes have seen and ears have heard just how much the world has changed as people of all ages scroll through screens in search of online recognition or a mental reward of dopamine. Other changes include lowered attention spans and diminishing social interaction.
I very much wish someone had asked Dr. McLuhan for his thoughts about messages conveyed by this crop circle and a large percentage of other formations that contain ancient and modern symbols. While we cannot know for certain, I believe Dr. McLuhan would agree that the crop circle medium produces an important impact beyond the message it clearly conveys.
Studs Terkel, the great American author, historian and conversationalist, interviewed Dr. McLuhan in July 1966, about four months after the infamous Michigan flap where Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the US Air Force scientific consultant to Project Blue Book, said some of the sightings could be due to “Swamp Gas.” The two briefly discussed UFOs (click here for details):
Studs Terkel: …Last question, Mr. McLuhan, and not asked with any sense of levity. Maybe, maybe. The fact you speak of something of the past, obsolete, becoming an art form; whether it’s a beaded lampshade, or whether it’s a Western town--
Marshall McLuhan: Or a Rembrandt.
Studs Terkel: Or a Rembrandt. Do you think that we, the human race, will become an art form one day? Do you think we — we come now to the key question, don’t we?
Marshall McLuhan: As —
Studs Terkel: Where are we going?
Marshall McLuhan: Well, here are these UFOs kicking around, having a look at us, as quaint objects, art forms. Yes. I think it’s entirely possible that this could befall.
Studs Terkel: On that note of gaiety and laughter, we say, thank you very much, Professor Marshall McLuhan.
Dr. McLuhan also coined the phrase “Global Village” to describe how modern-day electronic media (such as radio and television, and now the Internet and World Wide Web), have collapsed physical distances, allowing the entire world to experience events simultaneously. Life has become like living in a village, where everyone knows everyone else — and their business.
What are the Circle Makers telling us?
No matter who or what made the Odstone Barn crop circle, or an express statement of its purpose, the formation is a masterpiece worthy of the world’s great galleries. The formation appears like it was sculpted from living marble, with every line virtuosically planned and expertly executed. It is a work of art.
True, we do not have an interview with, or an interrogation of, the formation’s creator(s) to discover their purpose for making thousands of crop circles in the UK and around the world over the millennia. Like many artists, the circle maker seems to have left interpretation of the work to each viewer. We can, however, can make an educated guess as to what the circle maker’s message is at Odstone Barn.
In my view, the medium of crop circles — made by manipulating our food stuffs and seen in their entirety only from the sky above — represent a unique “Big Picture” view of our human predicament and life’s challenges. When inspected from within, we find most all of the plants in the formation remain alive and biophysically sound. Standing stalks and flattened stalks are sharply delineated, creating the impression of a three-dimensional, living object.
Crafted from a single long thread, folded into a space that allows us to contemplate its entirety in a single glance, the new Odstone Barn crop formation and its infinity knot lead us back to the beginning of time to the present and on through past infinity. With its message of protection, the shield knot reminds us our individual roles as protectors of each other and our planet and human community.
The formation with its Celtic symbols for infinity and protection also suggest life’s infinite paths and infinite intertwining threads stretch backward and forward in time and space. More than linking each living being on this planet, the thread also reminds us of the infinite possibilities represented within each individual life and the important if unrecognized impact each human makes on the entire world.
We may want to put down the phone and consider what one crop circle in a farmer’s field really means in regard to humanity’s current situation. Canada has lost more than 2 million hectares of boreal forest to fire in the last few weeks, sending masses of unhealthy smoke over a broad swath of North America. Wars in the Middle East has brought the world to the brink of Armageddon. It feels, at times, as if our problems are insurmountable.
To me, the symbols from Odstone Barn remind us that each of our lives depends on each and every one of our ancestors just for us to exist in the present moment. What’s more, each of us has a role to play in its preservation and continuance as the only world we have found that can sustain human life. Similarly, our earth has been part of an amazing universe in which previous generations of stars helped synthesize the elements, form abundant hydrogen fusing into helium, and then on to carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and all the rest that is needed for life.
Obviously, we humans need reminding. We must take care of our world and look out for one another as good neighbors. Of course, it is my hope that respect for the true and infinite value of human life would extend to intelligent or conscious creatures off-planet as well. We shouldn’t wait for help from “Them,” however. They’ve told us we need to get up off the couch. It’s up to us to get busy.